RFA Ticker, 7/18/16

Last week was awesome for researchers waiting on an RFA . . . at least for non-ME/CFS researchers anyway. NIH issued RFAs totaling more than $75 million, pushing the fiscal year total over the $2.2 billion mark.

And just as a refresher, I do occasionally get questions about why I haven’t counted recently announced ME/CFS grants in the Ticker. I explain more fully in the inaugural RFA Ticker post, but the short answer is that those grants were made under general program announcements, not an RFA.

Why does that matter? Because an RFA is a set aside amount of funding for a specific purpose, and it is far more likely to attract applications than general program announcements. Furthermore, RFAs have been repeatedly recommended by the CFS Advisory Committee and have been a focus of advocacy efforts for ten years.

If NIH is committed to changing its approach to ME/CFS, then RFAs are an essential piece of that change. That is why I am focused on the RFA Ticker.

Total RFAs Issued by NIH: 259 (October 2015 to date)

Total Dollars Committed to RFAs: $2,205,541,000 (October 2015 to date)